Dr. John's Health Matters
Welcome to Dr. John's Health Matters blog.
The articles posted here are from various sources who are duly acknowledged. I would appreciate being immediately notified, if any copywritten material needs to be removed. This blog is not intended to replace the qualified advice of a licensed health practitioner. Readers should exercise their own judgment. Enjoy, subscribe, participate and tell others :)
Following:
Navigate
COMING SOON!
Expand all | Collapse all 
Search
Click Tags under Articles
NOTE: SEARCH BY KEYWORD FUNCTIONS BELOW ARE TEMPORARILY MALFUNCTIONING. USE AT OWN RISK.
Or Display Full Article by
Posts tagged "adult"
Wednesday, Sep 2nd, 2009 ↓Waist-hip Ratio Better Than BMI For Gauging Obesity In Elderly, Study Finds →
Sept 2, 2009 (Sciencedaily.com)—Body mass index (BMI) readings may not be the best gauge of obesity in older adults, according to new research from UCLA endocrinologists and geriatricians. Instead, they say, the ratio of waist size to hip size may be a better indicator when it comes to those over 70.
In a new study published online in the peer-reviewed journal Annals of Epidemiology, researchers from the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA found that the waist-to-hip circumference ratio was a better yardstick for assessing obesity in high-functioning adults between the ages of 70 and 80, presumably because the physical changes that are part of the aging process alter the body proportions on which BMI is based.
“Basically, it isn’t BMI that matters in older adults — it’s waist size,” said Dr. Preethi Srikanthan, UCLA assistant professor of endocrinology and the study’s lead investigator. “Other studies have suggested that both waist size and BMI matter in young and middle-aged adults and that BMI may not be useful in older adults; this is one of the first studies to show that relative waist size does matter in older adults, even if BMI does not matter.”
For full article, see link above.
Links Between Video-game Playing And Health Risks In Adults Found →
Aug 18, 2009 (Sciencedaily.com)—While video gaming is generally perceived as a pastime for children and young adults, research shows that the average age of players in the United States is 35. Investigators from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Emory University and Andrews University analyzed survey data from over 500 adults ranging in age from 19 to 90 in the Seattle-Tacoma area on health risks; media use behaviors and perceptions, including those related to video-game playing; and demographic factors. In an article published in the October 2009 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, they found measurable correlations between video-game playing and health risks.
Participants reported whether they were players or nonplayers, and weekly usage was collected. Internet usage was assessed, as was the relative importance of the Internet as a social support. The personal determinants examined in this study included self-assessments of depression, personality, health status, physical and mental health, body mass index (BMI), and poor quality of life. Immersion in media environments was evaluated using the participants’ estimates of the time they spent during a typical week surfing the Internet and watching TV, including videos and DVDs. The Seattle–Tacoma area was selected because of its size (13th largest US media market) and its Internet usage level is the highest in the nation.
A total of 45.1% of respondents reported playing video games. Female video-game players reported greater depression and lower health status than female nonplayers. Male video-game players reported higher BMI and more Internet use time than male nonplayers. The only determinant common to both female and male video-game players was greater reliance on the Internet for social support.
Writing in the article, Dr. James B Weaver III, PhD, MPH, National Center for Health Marketing, CDC, Atlanta, states, “As hypothesized, health-risk factors – specifically, a higher BMI and a greater number of poor mental-health days – differentiated adult video-game players from nonplayers. Video-game players also reported lower extraversion, consistent with research on adolescents that linked video-game playing to a sedentary lifestyle and overweight status, and to mental-health concerns. Internet community support and time spent online distinguished adult video-game players from nonplayers, a finding consistent with prior research pointing to the willingness of adult video-game enthusiasts to sacrifice real-world social activities to play video games. The data illustrate the need for further research among adults to clarify how to use digital opportunities more effectively to promote health and prevent disease.”
For full article see link above.
Tags: video game television tv depression adult movie internet overweight obesity BMI mental health sedentary lifestyle disease
Treating Lazy Eyes With A Joystick →
July 9, 2009 (Sciencedaily.com)—Four percent of all children suffer from amblyopia, better known as “lazy eye syndrome.” Traditional treatment for the condition requires the use of an eye patch, often for months at a time, before the eye is corrected. This can lead to social stigma during a formative part of childhood, and worse, it’s not 100% effective.
Now Tel Aviv University’s eye and brain specialist Dr. Uri Polat of the Goldschleger Eye Research Institute has developed a computer therapy that could spare kids from the ugly eye patch, letting them enjoy themselves during therapy. The treatment, currently available for adults only, corrects the activity of the neurons in the brain, the main operator of eye function.
A leading expert in lazy eye syndrome recently assessed Dr. Polat’s invention and found that twenty hours in front of Dr. Polat’s computer treatment had the same effect as about 500 hours of wearing an eye patch. The review was published recently in Vision Research. Dr. Polat’s research group has also reported the new treatment’s efficacy in a number of scientific publications, including the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS).
For full article see link above.
Tags: eye vision lazy amblyopia treatment therapy brain neuron function adult children child
Long Working Hours in May Impair Cognition →
January 19, 2009 (mescape) — Middle-aged workers who consistently work overtime appear to be at risk for mild cognitive impairment (MCI), researchers report.
In a prospective study of middle-aged British civil servants, those who typically worked more than 55 hours a week scored worse on a vocabulary test and showed a greater decline in reasoning ability than their colleagues who worked 35 to 40 hours a week.
Since MCI predicts dementia and mortality, identifying risk factors for the condition in middle age is important, the researchers, led by Marianna Virtanen, PhD, from the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, in Helsinki, write.
“This study suggests that in addition to traditional risk factors for cognitive decline, such as biological age and disease, work-related factors, such as overtime, might contribute to cognitive decline,” Dr. Virtanen told Medscape Psychiatry.
For full medical article, see link above.
Abdominal Fat Linked to Depression in Older Adults →
December 8, 2008 (— Abdominal fat has been associated with heart disease and diabetes, and now researchers have discovered that it is also linked to depression.
Investigators at the VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, found that older individuals with depression had a 2-fold increased risk of gaining visceral fat (abdominal fat between the internal organs) during 5 years vs their counterparts without depression.
This research sheds more light on the complicated connections between fat, depression, heart disease, and diabetes, said study author Nicole Vogelzangs, MSc. “Storing your fat around the visceral organs puts you at risk for cardiovascular disease and diabetes, and now we know depression is linked to those risks, too,” she told Medscape Psychiatry.
For full medical article, see link above.
Note from Active Healthcare: This is the sort of title that tends to make people laugh and ask silly questions like: “Are we talking about one’s own abdominal fat, or someone else’s?” and “Wouldn’t the cure be to stop looking in the mirror?”
However, the link between these may actually be ineffective stress handling. Prolongued stress stimulates the production of the hormone COSTISOL, which has several effects, including deposition of abdominal fat, AND depression of the nervous system.
One’s solution of course is to reduce stress in our life’s, but more realistically to improve stress handling by:
- eating better;
- sleeping more;
- exercising regularly;
- keeping a positive outlooks, and;
- normalizing nerve function, but removing hidden interference to nerve activity. Science has identified such an hidden form of nerve impediment, the vertebral subluxation, and chiropractors have developped the tools and technology to detect, correct and help prevent such problems.
